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This blog has had its share of accolades. I can boast to be
perhaps the only beauty blog that has male heterosexual followers (for realz). I am also one to tell you not to spend your money but rather hold on to it.

But I also had criticisms for not knowing how to celebrate
joy in the form of a new shade of lipstick.And yes, I am guilty.

After all, once you have found your own shade of red that makes your
face light up and sparkle-what
else can the spectrum of colors entice you with?Certainly not the overrated Viva Glam de Jour that donates
to “charity” yet will never have the same effect as your own personal red.

So yes, this blog may teach you a lot of things
but it does not have passion (for yet another ho-hum lipstick).

With this post, I would like to change that.

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Every Viva Glam I turned
down, a lip balm I refused, a new miracle (aherm cough*BB, mineral) formula I
resisted, a new trendy color I skipped-

allowed me a thousand steps more of travel.

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And by travel, I do not mean the type where you stress to
finish all work in the office, stay a week in a hotel,have a day to day agenda of buildings,
museums and monuments to see, then go home more tired than before the vacation.

That’s being a tourist, where you have instagram pictures to show but
not a real experience that you can say enriched you.

Try travelling slow.

Stay longer without a real agenda but to live like and with the locals.

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For how else can you do much if you have a week full planned of
dead museums to see?

·Get yourself invited then thrown out (on purpose, they were getting too wild for
my taste and there are lines I do not cross) of an artist’s party in Pietra
Santa

·Ride in a midnight train full of sailors in
Napoli,

·Be cooked for and fed by a castle owning Italian
boy in Modena,

·Ride around Rome with a Milanese in a Vespa,

·Be shown around to mingle with the 25,000 local Venetian
population by a real merchant of
Venice

·Be asked to do a bible reading in an Italian wedding
in Bari

Not. Unless you take it slow.

And the place in Italy which has a special place in my heart
and where I recommend you start is Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance.

Here are glimpses of it from an adopted native’s
perspective.

Beauty Ad nauseam

There is a real medical condition called Florence syndrome,
so called because a lot of incidents happened after seeing the Loggia dei
Lenziin Piazza dela Signoria (the place where Bonfire of the Vanities
happened) in Florence.

In this you get overwhelmed with so much beauty that you
actually go frenzy dizzy.

I would not waste my time describing or showing you
pictures.It is to be experienced.Put this in your bucket list.

Medici is dead, long
live the Medicis

This banking family has fostered the arts, science,
literature, architecture that gave birth to Michelangelo, Galileo, Da Vinci and
Dante (to but name a few).

The last of the Medicis was the gay Gaston and the childless
Luisa.

Yet they are alive in the legacy of greatness that they
helped flourish.

But the real legacy is the wonder that are the
Florentines.I can wax poetry
about them, but allow me to just be stupid and say - gawd, they are really nice
people!

Why Does Michelangelo
Have a Beard?

I once stayed in a student’s flat where one of the tenants
is a sculpture student.

I learned that beards have two practical uses.For sculptors, they sometimes need
to see better and upclose without
a mask.A beard helps shield
their faces from the marble being chipped.

The second practical use of beards is to conceal a small
penis.

Why/why not Prosecco?

Sparkling wine, when grown in the Champagne region in France
is called Champagne.When grown in
Italy is called Prosecco.When
grown in Spain is called Cava.

Ihad a week
long tour of vineyards in the Champagne region and there would be better and
lesser quaity Champagnes as I imagine that there would be better and lesser
proseccos.The difference is just
the French would be complete asses about protecting their name (remember the fate of YSL’s Champagne
fragrance?).

So, when I hear someone deploring prosecco in favour of
Champagne, I scratch my head and ask what the hell this common beeatch think
she is talking about?

How to Tell A Good
Gelato

Bad gelato

This Italian ice cream is made from real fruits and hearty
ingredients.(To try is the sesame nero from Vivali, black sesame is imported from
Japan and once the batch for the year is over, it is over)

When you see gelato piled yey high atop its container, it
would require quite some unnatural shit to make it stand that way.

Stay away from gelatos piled yey high.

American Students as
Party Shepherds

Florence attracts a lot of students (and it is easy to enroll there as most schools offer courses with
translators.)

The cooler ones sometimes get jobs as party shepherds, that
is leading the throng of party goers to the next bar.

They can be great fun to live with but they often forget
that I am old enough to be their mamma and would bother me a lot to party.I love them! (Dylan and Tracey!)

How is All This
Possible?

Easier said than done, you will say.

True.

But possible.Especially
now more than ever when jobs can be done via the internet and an iphone full of
app enablers.

But you start with small steps.

So find and stick to the one true shade of red lipstick that
celebrates you.

Keep your load
light.

And go out and learn how the rest of the world wags
and what wags it.

Let me recommend that you start with Florence, Italy.

It is the where the Renaissance
started.

It could also be the start of your own
personal renaissance.

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Some practical tips:

Easy for you to say,
you do not have a job and kids…

If you have a regular job or a family, the book 4Hr workweek by Tim Ferris shows you how to hack it. Though I am not in lurv with the author who is a doppelganger of Woody Harrelson, the guy gives a good system and is selfless about sharing his tools to do it. You got to give him that.

How to Find a Legit
Housing

If looking for long term housing, do Craig’s list.

If someone says they do not currently live there and will
just send you key, go away.

At no instance should you ever pay via Western Union.If you must, pay perhaps a small
reservation amount via a proper bank account (volunteer your ID and ask for the
recipients ID as well).

If it can be arranged, secure your first two nights stay
first in a hotel and spend those first days checking out your long term lodging
options before you commit.

Note that for 1-2 days stay, hotels are aplenty and cheaper
near train stations.

Eurail Tickets? Yes
Or No?

Almost every tourist guide site I see tells you to buy those
Eurail tickets where you get to travel so many countries for a period of time
for a flat fee.

I say no.

First, those tickets limit your travel to ungodly hours or
slow trains.So you either spend
yourtime waiting and being
inconvenienced or paying more for a better train schedule.

Second, to cram so many countries in a definite period; move on
from one place you are just starting to love to another country just so you can make the
most out of your Eurail pass?

Might
as well wear a Hawaiian shirt and some leis while you are at it.

The option, travel by cheap airlines or by bus.Or carpool.

What to Pack

For this I found this video of Ms. St. Claire to be the one of the
best tips out there (except for the spare glasses, you do not need them with a Portocchiali) The other is
by Mr. Doug Dyment of Onebag.com

Me personally, I would
take these:

Little black sleeveless jersey dresses that I layer up with vests, coats, sweaters, shirts. (the best I find are from Max Mara, some of mine are more than 25 years old and still look great)

A good quality black leather motorcycle coat.

A pair of capri black jeans (got mine from H&M)

A fringy black mini skirt

A pair of ballet flats that I would wear then I would shop for appropriate shoes as I need them in Italy.

I load up on the accessories

And I think that capes are especially wonderful for travel and can do so many seasons.

Finally a disclaimer:

I do not earn from any of these recommendations.They do not even know I recommended
them.
Not all these images are mine. I found them floating around the internet. If you would know the owners of the images, kindly let me know so I may give them proper credit.